News: April 2014

Arguments have raged about whether or not dingoes should be culled and how far they are useful in safeguarding threatened smaller fauna, as they prey on the larger cats and foxes. While the Australian wildlife services are spending thousands on other means of controlling non-native species, without achieving great results, there is evidence that maintaining dingo numbers benefits the smaller mammals.

A paper in the Journal of Applied Ecology (doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12250 published Friday 10 April) urges all the participants in what has been, at times, a heated debate, to lay down their differences and get back into the field to collate the robust data necessary to provide certainty for management action.

An international team of scientists, led by Bangor University and funded by the BBSRC, recently tracked the world’s highest flying bird, the bar-headed goose, while it migrated across the Himalayas. Now they have shown how these birds are able to tolerate running at top speed while breathing only 7% oxygen.